Ursula von Leyen’s career: from the Local Government to the European Commission President

The first woman head of the European Commission

On July 16, 2019, the members of the European Parliament elected the former Minister of Defense of Germany, Ursula von De Leyen, for the post of new President of the European Commission. 383 MPs voted for her, 327 voted against, and another 22 were abstaining. To be elected, the majority of the votes needed to be 374 votes. On November 1, Ursula von Lauren will be replaced by Jean-Claude Juncker.

Von Leyen is the first female head of the European Union’s central executive body. She is 60 years old, mother of seven children. Apart from German, she is fluent in English and French. She is the author of a number of scientific articles.

Ursula von Leyen was born in Brussels, but moved to Germany at the age of 13. She studied at the London School of Economics and later was qualified as a Gynecologist, graduating from Hannover Medical Institute. After graduating from the PhD in Medicine, she graduated from Stanford University’s Higher Business School in 1993. In 1997-2001 she received her second higher education at Hannover Medical Institute, this time in the field of healthcare.

Ursula von Leyen entered Active politics when she was 40 years old. Her career has grown rapidly since the year 2000. She joined the Christian Democratic Party of Germany in 1990, and since 2004 she has been a member of the CDU’s presidency, and since 2010  –  Vice-President of the Party.

In 2005, he headed the Ministry of Family, Women, Youth and Elderly in the first cabinet of Angela Merkel, and after that she always supported Merkel in all matters. In the minister’s position, she has come up with a number of free social services, including support for the elderly, home-based care, as well as increasing places in the kindergartens. In spite of the fact that not all of her proposals were implemented, she quickly entered the top ten of Germany’s most prominent politicians.

In the next Merkel government (2009-2013), she occupied the position of the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs. In this position, she insisted on setting quotas for women in the board of directors of major companies (in 2015 Bundestag adopted a 30% quota law).

In 2014, Ursula von eyen became the first German Minister of Defense. She made efforts to increase the number of female soldiers. For this purpose, measures have been developed to ensure the compatibility of service and family, to provide greater opportunities for child care and more. The military environment is conservative, and Ursula von Leyen has had difficult times in that position and, according to some estimates, has never succeeded in finding a common language with people in uniform … She has been repeatedly criticized the improper military equipment. The ministry was also criticized for signing suspicious contracts with the private sector …

On July 15, 2019, she declared that she intends to resign from the post of the Minister of Defense, and on July 16^th she was elected the President of the European Commission.

n 1986, Ursula von Leyen married a medical professor and medical technician sales director, Hayko von den Leyen The couple has 5 daughters and two sons (born 1987-1999).